Michelangelo is certainly the most representative artist of the XVI century: a sculptor, painter, architect, and poet. He lived to a great age, and enjoyed great fame in his lifetime. Titian, and Venetian painting generally, was very
much influenced by his vision, and he is responsible in large measure for the
development of Mannerism.

Michelangelo di Ludovico di Lionardo di Buonarroti Simoni was born in 1475;
at Caprese, in Casentino. His family Buonarroti Simoni, are mentioned in the
Florentine chronicles as early as the XII century. In 1488, at the age of 13,
he entered the workshop of Domenico Ghirlandaio. Thus he came under the influence
of Masaccio, because his teacher, Ghirlandaio, not only looked to Masaccio for
ideas on religious scenes, but actually imitated certain elements of his designs.
After less than a year he moved to the academy set up by Lorenzo the Magnificent.
From 1489 till 1492, he lived in the Palazzo Medici in Via Larga, where he could
study “antique and good statues” and could meet the sophisticated
humanists and writers of the Medici circle.